TOKYO: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. said Friday that it will issue a total of 1 trillion in bonds through wholly owned unit NTT Finance Corp. on Dec. 18.

The proceeds will be used to repay loans the Japanese telecommunications company took out from financial institutions to make mobile phone operator NTT Docomo Inc. a fully owned subsidiary. The issue amount will be the largest for a single corporate bond placement in Japan, according to NTT Finance.

NTT borrowed a total of about 4.3 trillion yen from six domestic financial institutions to buy NTT Docomo shares in its tender offer for the unit, which ran from late September and mid-November.

NTT initially planned to issue some 500 billion yen in bonds. But it raised the amount to 1 trillion yen later, because the tender offer attracted stronger-than-expected demand. Also behind the hike in the issue amount were low domestic interest rates.

A total of four sets of bonds maturing in three to 10 years will be issued, with the coupon rates set at between 0.050 pct and 0.380 pct.

NTT is also considering issuing dollar-denominated bonds equivalent to about 1 trillion yen overseas.

JIJI Press